Coffee from East Africa wine from California chocolate from the Ivory Coast - all those every
day products are based on labour often produced under appalling conditions but always
involving the combination of various work processes we are often not aware of. What is the
day-to-day reality for workers in various parts of the world and how was it in the past? How
do they work today and how did they work in the past? These and many other questions comprise
the field of the global history of work - a young discipline that is introduced with this
handbook. In 8 thematic chapters this book discusses these aspects of work in a global and
long term perspective paying attention to several kinds of work. Convict labour slave and
wage labour labour migration and workers of the textile industry but also workers'
organisation strikes and motivations for work are part of this first handbook of global
labour history written by the most renowned scholars of the profession.
